man7.org > Linux > man-pages

Linux/UNIX system programming training

Another version of this page is provided by the shadow-utils project

chfn(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFIG FILE ITEMS | EXIT STATUS | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY 

CHFN(1)                       User Commands                      CHFN(1)

NAME         top

       chfn - change your finger information

SYNOPSIS         top

       chfn [-f full-name] [-o office] [-p office-phone] [-h home-phone]
       [-u] [-V] [username]

DESCRIPTION         top

       chfn is used to change your finger information. This information
       is stored in the /etc/passwd file, and is displayed by the finger
       program. The Linux finger command will display four pieces of
       information that can be changed by chfn: your real name, your
       work room and phone, and your home phone.

       Any of the four pieces of information can be specified on the
       command line. If no information is given on the command line,
       chfn enters interactive mode.

       In interactive mode, chfn will prompt for each field. At a
       prompt, you can enter the new information, or just press return
       to leave the field unchanged. Enter the keyword "none" to make
       the field blank.

       chfn supports non-local entries (kerberos, LDAP, etc.) if linked
       with libuser, otherwise use ypchfn(1), lchfn(1) or any other
       implementation for non-local entries.

OPTIONS         top

       -f, --full-name full-name
           Specify your real name.

       -o, --office office
           Specify your office room number.

       -p, --office-phone office-phone
           Specify your office phone number.

       -h, --home-phone home-phone
           Specify your home phone number.

       -u, --help
           Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
           Print version and exit. The short options -V have been used
           since version 2.39; old versions use deprecated -v.

       -h, --help
           Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
           Print version and exit.

CONFIG FILE ITEMS         top

       chfn reads the /etc/login.defs configuration file (see
       login.defs(5)). Note that the configuration file could be
       distributed with another package (e.g., shadow-utils). The
       following configuration items are relevant for chfn:

       CHFN_RESTRICT string
           Indicate which fields are changeable by chfn.

           The boolean setting "yes" means that only the Office, Office
           Phone and Home Phone fields are changeable, and boolean
           setting "no" means that also the Full Name is changeable.

           Another way to specify changeable fields is by abbreviations:
           f = Full Name, r = Office (room), w = Office (work) Phone, h
           = Home Phone. For example, CHFN_RESTRICT "wh" allows changing
           work and home phone numbers.

           If CHFN_RESTRICT is undefined, then all finger information is
           read-only. This is the default.

EXIT STATUS         top

       Returns 0 if operation was successful, 1 if operation failed or
       command syntax was not valid.

AUTHORS         top

       Salvatore Valente <[email protected]>

SEE ALSO         top

       chsh(1), finger(1), login.defs(5), passwd(5)

REPORTING BUGS         top

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
       https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY         top

       The chfn command is part of the util-linux package which can be
       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page
       is part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux
       utilities) project. Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have
       a bug report for this manual page, send it to
       [email protected]. This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
       2024-06-14. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
       that was found in the repository was 2024-06-10.) If you discover
       any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
       or you have corrections or improvements to the information in
       this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
       send a mail to [email protected]

util-linux 2.39.594-1e0ad      2023-07-19                        CHFN(1)

Pages that refer to this page: chsh(1@@shadow-utils),  passwd(5),  groupadd(8),  groupdel(8),  groupmems(8),  groupmod(8),  useradd(8),  userdel(8),  usermod(8)

HTML rendering created 2024-06-26 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface.

For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here.

Hosting by jambit GmbH.

Cover of TLPI